Monthly Archives: May 2018

Mario Rosales, who farms 365 acres along the Rio Grande, knows the river is in bad shape this year. It has already dried to a dusty ribbon of sand in some parts, and most of the water that does flow is diverted to irrigate crops, including Mr. Rosales’s fields of wheat, oats, alfalfa and New Mexico’s beloved chiles. Because last winter’s mountain snowpack was the second-lowest on record, even that irrigation water may run out at the end of July,…

The Texas state record Guadalupe bass measured 17.25 inches, weighed only 3.71 pounds, and was caught on fly fishing tackle from the Colorado River downstream from Austin. What might seem like a yawner of a catch to the average bass angler has greater impact outside the sport than you can imagine. Think more than one million people, or the population of Austin that depends on drawing water from the Colorado River and water supply lakes forming the native range of the species.…

To hear Dr. Robert Mace speak at a water conference is to hear a very knowledgeable water expert mixing in a little humor on the side. Determined to retain the interest of the audience, many times Mace titles his presentations with humorous names, such as “Gone With the Wind: The History of Pumping Water With Windmills” and “Mace’s Believe It or Not: Bizarre Texas Groundwater facts!” and inserts humorous quips in the talks. Even though the new chief water policy officer and…

Each week, Ina Alexatos drives throughout Wimberley in a Subaru Forester with the words Trees for the Blanco printed across the side. She visits riverside landowners one by one to consult them on letting their banks go wild. She then stakes orange flags to mark where a variety of trees — bald cypress, sycamore, pecan — will be planted by volunteers, private contractors or Texas Conservation Corps. Alexatos works as the reforestation coordinator on the Blanco River for Austin-based nonprofit…

In July of 2017, Electro Purification, LLC (“EP”) applied for a groundwater production permit at the Barton Springs Edwards Aquifer Conservation District (“BSEACD”) for a Middle Trinity Aquifer well field in Hays County. The permit application indicates that pumping rates will be phased in over time with a maximum permitted pumping rate of 2.5 million gallons per day (MGD), or approximately 912 million gallons per year, pumped from seven wells located on the Odell and Bridges properties… Read more from…

The South San Gabriel River was so clear as it flowed past Frank and LaWann Tull’s house on Waterford Lane in Georgetown that they held baptisms for their church in April 2016 and April 2017. But this year they couldn’t. Around the beginning of April, t he river became blanketed with thick coats of algae that lasted for several weeks, they said. “We’ve been here 11 years and we’ve never seen anything like this,” said LaWann Tull. “It’s a thick, heavy…

“Nearly 80 percent of the United States can no longer see the Milky Way,” Ken Kattner, an amateur astronomer and president of International Dark-Sky Association, said. Light pollution remains an ever-radiating problem for not only the United States, but many parts of the world. “Let’s do something about it now before it gets worse,” Kattner said. Also a Houston attorney, Kattner owns an observatory in Fredericksburg. Like several other towns in the Texas Hill Country, Fredericksburg is looking to cut down…

Celebrate the 10th anniversary of the Texas Water Symposium with a conversation about emerging water management techniques called “One Water” at 7pm on Wednesday, May 30th. The program, titled What is “One Water” and can it meet the future water needs of a growing Hill Country? will be held at the Hill Country University Center in Fredericksburg, Texas and will feature representatives from the cities of Fredericksburg, Boerne, and experts on the implementation of One Water in Texas. This event…

As Gus McCrae wisely quipped in “Lonesome Dove”: “Yesterday’s gone, we can’t get it back.” The Farm Bill of yesterday — or four years ago, to be clear — is coming to a close, soon to be replaced by a new bill. Though it may not seem like it at first blush, the Farm Bill has far-reaching effects for Texans and all Americans. Along with funding important initiatives like affordable and accessible food options, commodities, food production and trade, the…

Humans are dramatically altering water supply in many places worldwide, say NASA scientists who have been tracking regional changes via satellite. The researchers analyzed 14 years of data from NASA’s twin Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment satellites, which the space agency has dubbed GRACE. They studied areas with large increases or decreases in freshwater — including water stored in aquifers, ice, lakes, rivers, snow and soil — to determine the most likely causes of these changes. Changes in two-thirds of the 34 hot spots from…

"All my life I have drawn sustenance from the rivers and from the hills of my native state... I want no less for all the children of America than what I was privileged to have as a boy."-Lyndon B. Johnson